


His Embrace

by mos



Category: The 100 (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 08:33:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3930082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mos/pseuds/mos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kabby hugs. Takes place after their "Then act like one!" fight in 2x11.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Embrace

"Marcus."

She caught up with him in the council room, where he stopped and turned at her voice. His face was tired, his posture saying he was not interested in another argument with her. He was in luck, because she hated arguing with him, and all she really wanted was to relieve some of the crushing stress of being a leader.

"I'm sorry," she said. He sighed, and then quirked a little smile at her.

"I'm sorry, too."

"Do you think I'm doing a bad job? As chancellor?"

"I think you're still learning," he said gently. "Which is a good thing. You factor emotion into your decisions, Abby. Sometimes it's needed. I learned that from you, you know. Cold, hard logic doesn't always work."

"But neither does pure emotion."

"No."

"You're not torturing Emerson, Marcus."

He looked at her for a long moment. Too long. She wondered what thoughts were in his mind when he looked at her like that, when his eyes connected with hers so intensely and sometimes dropped to her lips. They flicked away, and the smile appeared again.

"You're going to save my soul, Abby."

He was ridiculous. "Your soul doesn't need saving, Marcus."

His smile turned sad, and it was painful to see. He really did believe that his soul needed saving. If she wasn't so preoccupied with war and Clarke and alliances and making life work on the ground... yeah, maybe she'd spend every moment of every day making him see that he was a good man. He was kind, and honest, and passionate. And in the end, she needed him, though she would never say so.

"How are you holding up?" he asked, changing the subject. Deflecting, probably.

She shrugged. "It's just... this alliance with the grounders. You're right. Clarke is holding everything together."

"That doesn't mean she doesn't need you, Abby."

"That's just it. She doesn't." The truth of it cut her somewhere deep inside, a hollow, aching wound somewhere between her heart and her gut. "She's slipping away. And I've tried to explain why I did the things I did, and... she hates me and I'm losing her."

"Abby." His voice had softened, and he moved closer to her.

But she couldn't stop babbling on about her stupid feelings, the ones she kept bottled up because there was nobody to talk to them about anymore. "I've lost everyone. Jake. Callie. Clarke is all I have left. The way she looks at me sometimes...I thought I was doing my best for her, but all I was doing was killing her like I did everyone else. I sent her down here to die and now I have to watch the world break her."

Tears welled up in her eyes, and as the first one spilled over, Marcus gently pulled her into an embrace. The surprise of it shocked her out of crying, and for one brief, fleeting second, she wanted to push him away. She fell into it instead, leaning into him and embracing him back, the warmth and solidity of his arms around her momentarily filling that aching wound inside her. How long had it been since she'd felt a man's arms around her? It had been over a year, not since... Marcus's arms felt different, though. New. Good. Right. And she didn't want to let him go. In that moment, if she could have chosen anywhere to stay for eternity, she would have chosen to be there.

"You haven't lost everyone," he said, his voice low. The unsaid part of it hung in the air. _You haven't lost me._

But she was secretly terrified of losing him, and voicing it would be pointless. In a way she thought he already knew, or maybe he feared losing her as well, because he was ever by her side, edging closer during tense moments and grabbing hold of her arm during the violent ones. And she liked it. Strong, independent Abby Griffin liked being manhandled by Marcus Kane, just as she liked having his arms around her right now.

"Okay," she said, reluctantly pulling away. His arms loosened but didn't drop, and she found herself looking up at him, acutely aware that if she closed just a few inches between them, her lips could be against his. She wondered if that would surprise him.

"Better?" he asked. His arms loosened a little more. Reluctantly, she began to pull out of them, stepping back and putting space between them.

She nodded. "Thank you. The blood test results should be finished by now. I should go."

His smile made an appearance again, together with amusement in his eyes. "Go, then. I'll see you later."

Her arm brushed against his as she walked past him, and in her mind he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him and kissed her in every way she'd imagined. Instead her arm tingled in the spot where it had brushed his, and she glanced back at him as she left the room, finding him watching her. There were so many maybes there in the air between them, so many could-have-beens and possibilities.

One day she'd explore them. One day.


End file.
